Author

Tim Henderson

Tim Henderson

Tim Henderson covers demographics for Stateline. He has been a reporter at the Miami Herald, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Journal News.

A child at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

States see influx of migrants from India, Venezuela and China

By: - September 14, 2023

NEW YORK — A late-pandemic surge of new arrivals from India, Venezuela and China, reflecting people with legal visas and those fleeing across the United States’ southern border seeking asylum, helped bring more than 900,000 new immigrants to the U.S. between 2021 and 2022, according to a Stateline analysis of new census data to be released Thursday. Florida […]

An overdose awareness event.

Death rates for people under 40 have skyrocketed. Blame fentanyl.

By: - September 5, 2023

A new Stateline analysis shows that U.S. residents under 40 were relatively unscathed by COVID-19 in the pandemic but fell victim to another killer: accidental drug overdose deaths. Death rates in the age group were up by nearly a third in 2021 over 2018, and last year were still 21% higher. COVID-19 was a small […]

A researcher in a New Jersey lab.

Death counts remain high in some states even as COVID fatalities wane

By: - August 23, 2023

Several months after President Joe Biden ended the national emergency for COVID-19, preliminary health data indicates the historic degree to which the pandemic increased death rates nationwide — not just because of the virus itself, but also through the pandemic’s reverberating effects on society. Deaths from vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides and overdoses spiked in many […]

Embryologist looks through a microscope.

Few states extend fertility treatment coverage to Medicaid recipients

By: - August 10, 2023

As more states require private insurers to cover fertility-related health care, many efforts to extend similar protections to Medicaid patients this year have foundered over cost concerns. Only two states provide significant fertility coverage through Medicaid: New York, which offers fertility medications, and Illinois, where Medicaid will cover the storage of sperm or eggs for those […]

A family in the Minnesota Capitol.

Fertility health coverage is still hard to come by in many states

By: - July 28, 2023

As fertility rates drop and more women postpone childbirth into their 30s and 40s, more states are considering mandating that private insurers cover fertility treatments to help people start a family without the crushing out-of-pocket expenses. Such laws would help people such as Miraya and Andy Gran of Bloomington, Minnesota, who ended up spending $102,000 to have their […]

A construction trainee at work in Deerfield, Wis.

A ‘she-cession’ no more: After COVID dip, women’s employment hits all-time high

By: - July 19, 2023

After fears of a “she-cession” during the pandemic, women have returned to the workforce at unprecedented rates. Much of the gain reflects a boom in jobs traditionally held by women, including nursing and teaching.  Many good-paying jobs in fields such as construction and tech management are still dominated by men, a continuing challenge for states […]

A waiter serving customers in New York City.

Despite pandemic pay boost, low-wage workers still can’t afford basic needs

By: - July 10, 2023

Employers grappling with a nationwide labor shortage gave low-wage workers the largest pay increases in most states between 2019 and last year. But even so, many of those workers — more than 40% of all U.S. households, by one estimate — are struggling to cover the inflated costs of basic expenses. In the past several […]

Seniors compete in an athletic competition.

We’re older than we used to be, especially in these states

By: - June 26, 2023

The median age rose in almost every state last year, census estimates show, continuing a long-term trend that is pushing states to prepare for aging populations. Seventeen states had median ages over 40 in 2022, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates of the age at which half of residents are older and half are […]

Workers at a power plant in Houston in 2022.

Workers are less productive in key states. What it means for the economy.

By: - June 6, 2023

U.S. worker productivity has dropped significantly, including in key large states, leaving some economists alarmed by the decrease in a measure that could mean trillions of dollars to the economy. Labor productivity — the value of the goods and services produced on average by an hour’s work — ranged from $58.80 in Mississippi to $120.67 […]

A family strolls in a Connecticut park.

Births decline in most states, continuing a long-term trend

By: - May 25, 2023

Fast-growing Texas and Florida had the biggest increases in the number of births last year, while a dozen other states — half of them in the South — continued to rebound from pandemic lows. In the United States as a whole, however, the number of births has plateaued after a modest increase following the worst […]

Construction of a Seattle waterfront project.

A few cities are regaining residents after shrinking during the pandemic

By: - May 18, 2023

The vast majority of American cities are shrinking, but new data shows that a few are regaining residents after population declines early in the pandemic — bolstered, perhaps, by the rapid construction of new homes. Seattle, Houston, Atlanta and Tucson, Arizona, are among the cities that lost population between 2020 and 2021 but now have more people […]

Immigrants receive aid at a hotel in El Paso, Texas.

Expiration of Title 42 border rule prompts much rhetoric, less action

By: - May 17, 2023

The end of a pandemic-era policy that allowed U.S. border authorities to quickly turn back some migrants has prompted a mixed reaction from state and local governments, including new restrictions on immigrant workers, beefed up border enforcement and entreaties for more federal help. But unlike the 2010s, when conservative states such as Alabama, Arizona and […]